Editorial: President Trump’s petty and vindictive asylum fees

Migrants seeking asylum in the United States receive breakfast from a group of volunteers in near the international bridge, Tuesday, April 30, 2019, in Matamoros, Mexico. President Donald Trump is proposing charging asylum seekers a fee to process their applications as he continues to try to crack down on the surge of Central American migrants seeking to cross into the U.S. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Photo: Eric Gay / Associated Press

In a new attempt to restrict the country’s asylum process, President Trump has issued a presidential memorandum that proposes charging asylum seekers fees for the cost of their applications.

Trump’s proposal also includes an immediate revocation of work authorizations from people who are denied asylum, and a (separate) fee for asylum seekers who are seeking employment during the period their claims are pending.

“The purpose of this memorandum is to strengthen asylum procedures to safeguard our system against rampant abuse of our asylum process,” Trump writes in the memorandum.

The vast majority of asylum seekers are fleeing a combination of violence and poverty.

Asylum seekers from Central America — who have been a particular focus of the Trump administration’s ire — are leaving behind a complicated and deadly landscape of gang-ridden cities and a countryside that’s been devastated by climate-change-fueled droughts. Many of these migrants have already gone into debt just to reach our borders.

While the memorandum seems targeted at Central American asylum seekers, it would also entangle migrants from other countries, including those with whom we have long-standing relationships. (Thousands of Cubans seek entry to the U.S. on political asylum, for instance.)

Since most asylum seekers are already impoverished — and therefore unable to afford fees for their participation in a legal and internationally protected practice to defend themselves from persecution — it’s worth asking what President Trump is seeking to accomplish with his memorandum.

Trump has insulted the asylum system in the past by calling it a “loophole” for immigrants and casting aspersions on whether those who seek to use it are truly in danger. His former attorney general, Jeff Sessions, sought to slash the number of people who qualified for protection by making it nearly impossible for domestic violence victims and those fleeing gang violence to qualify.

Yet Trump hasn’t been willing to work with Congress on immigration bills, preferring to use executive actions to break the asylum system instead.

It’s clear that Trump feels comfortable pushing the envelope on asylum because thus far, Congress hasn’t been willing to stop him. They must prove otherwise by standing up for the rights of the persecuted.

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